Buyer is scamming me, eBay HAS NO CUSTOMER SERVICE AND REFUSES TO HELP

[petesite]

I just have to say I've been selling on eBay since 2003 (17 years) and I've NEVER been treated this poorly by a company. After this I will be closing my eBay account due to the absolute total lack of help I've been offered as a long time member. A buyer purchased an item from me (a NES console) and when it arrived to them the cables did not fit their tv. The buyer wants me to refund them or buy them new cables because THEY DIDN'T READ THE LISTING. I shouldn't have to buy new cables for anyone, they did not read the listing because it clearly states the color of cables it comes with (in HD photos no less). I have called eBay customer service BUT THEY LITERALLY JUST HANG UP ON ME AND TELL ME TO VISIT THEIR AWFUL HELP PAGE THAT IS JUST A BIG ERROR SCREEN. I have tried the resolution center but there are no options that I can click, when I go to respond to the return request it only gives me the option to refund them??? Why can't I deny an absurd return request? Why can't I get ahold of a real customer service person? All I do is pay outrageous fees and receive NO help. Overall just done with eBay at this point...terrible customer service 

[petesite]

The amount of money that PayPal froze ($118, the full price of the system+ original shipping cost) is still frozen and I can't access it. Tried calling PayPal but they also no longer have actual human customer service people, just a hang-up happy robo service with 2 options...so in the end I am out everything. eBay did not help, at no point did they step in and at no point did I ever have communication with any eBay anything. This is a cautionary tale to all current and future sellers on this platform, find a new place for your wares because eventually this mess, like all messes, will be cleaned up...

PROLOGUE - eBay actually had the NERVE to ask me for feedback for my "customer service experience". I had fun with that you better believe...pages of fun...

[petesite]

So how did this end? eBay NEVER once replied to my request, in no way did they ever look into my "report a buyer" request. They sent an automated "in 48 hours we will return with a decision" and 6 days later the case simply vanished from my seller dashboard. *poof* gone. When I click on cases open it says "1 CASE STILL OPEN" but eBay claims the return was closed. It was not. The amount of money that PayPal froze ($118, the full price of the system+ original shipping cost) is still frozen and I can't access it. Tried calling PayPal but they also no longer have actual human customer service people, just a hang-up happy robo service with 2 options...so in the end I am out everything. The buyer never returned the system, in fact I NEVER even got the $21  I paid out of pocket back for the return label I issued them (that they clearly never used). Eventually the buyer simply stopped responding to my emails, eBay did not help, at no point did they step in and at no point did I ever have communication with any eBay anything. This is a cautionary tale to all current and future sellers on this platform, find a new place for your wares because eventually this mess, like all messes, will be cleaned up...

PROLOGUE - While trying to post this response I received so many error messages that the page crashed and continue to do so. My reply was cut in half and the first time it simply vanished altogether after I posted it, I do not think this is a coincidence. So I will repost my final reply below...honestly this has been outrageous and I cannot believe a company would treat the people who make them money this way. Off to Instagram to start a new online venue...

[american-photography]

Why are you communicating outside of Ebay and what are you trying to hide?  Have you tried working with the buyer rather than getting completely upset and irrational?

You do know it violates Ebay policy to communicate outside the system.

Ebay probably could have helped you had you communicated within the Ebay messaging system.

[petesite]

Man dude you literally have ZERO reading comprehension or apparently the ability to look at PHOTOS I POSTED OF ME COMMUNICATING DIRECTLY THROUGH EBAY...you are part of the problem with eBay american-photography because you DID NOT READ MY POSTS clearly or you can see that this whole thing has been through eBay

[shhboom]

It  looks like she wants  to keep the item  after you convinced her how to connect the  cables. As a previous commenter stated, you must try to be as courteous as possible when communicating with a buyer (it helps to keep the lines of communication  open). I had the same problem last year with a 1975 Atari Pong  console I sold. The buyer was extremely irate saying I sent the wrong cable. I calmly replied with a big photo of where exactly the cable connects to on a TV. Your listing  may  have confused the buyer because you included a 3-conductor RGB video cable instead of the original 2-conductor AV  cable and the  single conductor RF switch cable that came with the original NES.  You might have mentioned  in your listing that only two conductors on the 3-conductor cable were needed and could only be connected  to a monitor or a TV with AV  connectors , and not to the antenna connector. It still puzzles me how she could connect the cable in such a way as to get  only a black & white image.

[petesite]

I sell a lot of consoles (usually PlayStations so you can't mess that up) so this is actually a pretty common occurrence for me, I usually just send them a picture of the setup and 99% of the time they get it, if they don't I give them a full refund and it's done. I told her to connect the green cable to the yellow (video) and the red to the red, white to blue. She refused to try to even connect it like I was showing her through photos and demanded a refund. I offered her a full refund (which she then refused and said she just wanted cables). Eventually I messaged her (through eBay the WHOLE time) and she said she'd accepted the full refund. I sent her a return label (at my cost) and she never shipped it back because the tracking was never activated. She just stopped messaging me after that, so the guy before you that commented literally didn't read a word of what I posted. So if I sound a bit upset in communication it's because I'm dealing with an entire set of people (both eBay and this buyer AND commenters) that refuse to communicate. 

The black and white image is a result of her connecting it through the wrong port on her tv, you can cross the green (y) with a blue unused audio port and it will transmit in a black/white setting only for some reason. It's just very frustrating to me that people think I'm trying to scam anyone, I've sold on this platform for nearly 20 years with 100% buyer satisfaction and eBay won't even acknowledge my multiple attempts at contacting them. I literally can't do anything and I've tried as hard as i can to make this right

[petesite]

I sell a lot of consoles (mostly PlayStations so those are hard to connect wrong) and 99% of the time if a buyer has an issue they contact me (through eBay messages) and I explain to them how to connect the system with pictures. Again 99% of the time the buyer hooks it up correctly and if they don't I offer a full return. This buyer did not contact me, she opened a return/refund case immediately and demanded new cables. I offered her new cables. She said no she then wanted a full refund. I accepted the return request and issued her a refund label. 6 days later the label was never used and the last message I received was she was sorry because she was busy with a baby and couldn't respond (how that's my problem I have NO idea). If I sound upset it's because I have to deal with this customer, ebay who literally won't respond and then other commenters (like American-Photography) who can't even bother to read the literal proof I've been posting. To top it all off every time I try to respond or make a reply here, I am met with a continuous stream of error messages and the words I'm replying just disappearing (see pictures) or me unable to view anything. 

It just upsets me that I get accused of trying to scam people when I've had an account for nearly 20 years with 100% positive buyer feedback. Why would I choose one customer to be that way to? Makes no sense

[petesite]

Her reply (highlighted in red shown as #2) in the reply above is in regards to her contacting customer service and falsely telling them I refused to refund her. She sent me the following picture of a text she had with CS attached to that message as PROOF she falsely told them I refused to refund her (shown on this thread in message # 10 and I will show it here again for posterity. I then showed her the email where I showed PROOF of me offering a full refund and she got nasty with me (again proof shown). 

So this whole thing has just been a circus

[digita_47]

Its the sadly truth and you're not the only one affected by this.

eBay do not care about their sellers, buyer will win no matter what.

eBay keeps making his money even if the seller lost his item and money, so there's no reason to side with the seller at all.

[petesite · Accepted solution]

Well, it's OVER. Took almost 2 weeks and I might add that at no point did eBay ever once step in to help me, even though I opened a case through their system and they flat-out ignored me and then retracted my case. All I received was (1) automated email and that was it. Never could get ahold of even 1 real customer service person. PayPal was forced to unhold the funds after the seller mysteriously closed the case after not communicating with me any further. I was not given the money back for the return label I paid for, so I lost a further $21. If it weren't for the fact I was able to reason with the buyer (after providing proof they had lied to customer service) then I'd basically be out everything.

So let this be a cautionary tale to all those of you who sell on eBay or are thinking about selling on eBay...there are OTHER places you can take your business with much less fees that also use PayPal. Instagram, Etsy, Pintrest, even the scam haven of iOffer probably has more to offer than this outdated digital garbage dump of a platform. ✌️

And thank you to those of you who offered support and words of real advice - Petesite 

[pheffersfriend2]

I just want to say that I feel your pain. I've had a few Ebay Abusive buyers and this was before the Pandemic. Let me explain that on all of those occasions I had excellent Ebay customer real live person support and won all of the cases in support of me as a seller and then blocked the abusive buyers. But since then I have tried to contact customer service a few times since the Corona Virus and I truly think that since so many customer support personnel are either working from home or have been laid off that this is why we are not receiving customer service anymore. You did everything right. Luckily the abusive buyers don't come along that often. This person treated you horribly and I hope you can block them and stick around as a seller hoping this won't happen again. Maybe customer service will come back again and maybe not. I've been trying to reach them about a technical site issue to no avail. I get the Not Secure page message every time I try to go back and view an item I've purchased and it's annoying. Good Luck with whatever you decide to do!

[patch-it-up-buttercup]

THEY ALL WORK FROM HOME AND YET THERE IS NO FU**ING ONLINE PEOPLE TO TALK TO????? 

[ljungbergarn54]

This is Ebay:s

Payment methods policy

What is the policy?

 •PayPal

•PayPal Credit

•Credit card or debit card

•Apple Pay

•Google Pay

•Payment upon pickup

Listings in one of our approved categories may offer the following additional payment options:

•Bank-to-bank transfers (also known as bank wire transfers and bank cash transfers.

I did send from my bank account directly to sellers bank account with IBAN and all I made a Bank-to-bank transfer of almost 2,500Euros.  Did not receive my goods. Opened a case. Long time goes and when I ask Ebay - what is happening they say that my Bank-to-bank transfer is not a Bank-to-bank transfer!
When I ask Ebay showing the Bank-to-bank transfer - what is this then? . Ebay do not respond. Is Ebay a part of the scammers? 

[addoria]

I've had a similar experience.  A buyer tried to claim they had not received their item ( long BEFORE the postal company's delivery time window had been reached ) and asked for their money back.  eBay just handed over the money with no questions asked.

I have absolutely no reason to think that the buyer did not ultimately receive their item within the courier's timescale  (and they buyer did not communicate with me at any stage to report a delay) so they get to keep the goods for free and I have to pay the postage for getting it to them.  Such brazen dishonesty is breath-taking but the really shocking part is that eBay supports this behaviour.  Dishonesty pays with eBay!

[donna*tena]

Thank you for posting. You are 1000% RIGHT!!! I have been on eBay since 1997, never seen it this bad. Thinking about trying yo sell on Vinted. NO ONE to talk to when an issue arises is bull crap. I could not agree with you more.